In advance of Pope Francis’s arrival in the U.S., Fox News is preparing their audience by telling everyone just how terrible he is going to make them feel. You might think they were expecting the landfall of Hurricane Francis, not the head of the Roman Catholic church. And when you need to attack somebody with comments that are simply off-base and stupid, what better place to do it than on the network’s morning show, Fox and Friends?

The curvy couch crew sat down on Monday morning with Lauren Green, the network’s “chief religion correspondent.” She is introduced by host Steve Doocy, who mentions that Green has played the piano for the pope.

“Well, Pope Benedict,” Green corrects.

You know this conversation isn’t going to paint Francis in a positive light when host Brian Kilmeade jumps in and says, “He was a lot less judgmental than this pope, I’m sure.”

Next comes a video on how the church is changing under Francis, who the report says is trying to make the church more “inclusive.” While it can’t be said for sure, the ears of many Fox viewers likely went on alert when they heard that word. The video takes several subtle shots, such as when it asks what the pope’s reaction might be when he visits capitalist America, which the narrator calls the “land of liberty,” given his concern for the poor. The message seems to be, “Hey pope! If you want freedom, those poor people just need to learn to take care of themselves!”

Another dig at Francis comes when the narrator says that while Francis appears to be trying to realize some of the goals the church set out at the conference known as “Vatican II,” in the 1960’s. He points out that while Francis’s predecessors, Benedict XVI and John Paul II both attended that conference, Francis had not even been ordained a priest when it took place. You can almost hear Bill O’Reilly screaming at the pope: “You weren’t there! How could you possibly know what it was all about?!?!”

But the biggest insult to Pope Francis comes after the video clip is over. Kilmeade asks Green if she thinks the pope will get political, and talk about things like “America’s worship of money, and our green energy, and talk about global warming?”

Green reponds:

“I don’t doubt that he might mention some of those things, but as I said on the show yesterday, I said you know, Pope Francis is an equal opportunity offender. He will make sure that everybody feels a little bit uncomfortable.”

“An equal opportunity offender.” That’s how the Fox News religion correspondent views the leader of a church with an estimated worldwide following of 1.2 billion people. Many different people have become fans of Pope Francis for many different reasons, and the gang at Fox doesn’t seem to like any of them.

Author: Wes WilliamsWes Williams is a lifelong political junkie, stuck in the red end of blue Delaware, where he lives near the beaches with his wife of 33 years and three cats. While politics of all sorts are his passion, he is particularly interested in issues involving labor, education, and the justice system.
Follow Wes on Twitter at @WesWilliams_AI or on his Facebook page, LeftOfLiberal.